Kazakhstan jails former minister for twenty-four years over spouse’s torture, homicide
United Nations says about 400 girls die from home violence in Kazakhstan every year, however many instances go unreported.
Warning: This text accommodates particulars of violent home abuse that some might discover upsetting.
Kazakhstan’s high courtroom has sentenced a former financial system minister to 24 years in jail for torturing and murdering his spouse, following a broadly watched trial that many noticed as a check of the president’s promise to strengthen girls’s rights.
Kuandyk Bishimbayev, 44, was discovered responsible and sentenced by the Supreme Court docket on Monday.
His trial, which has been broadcast dwell over the previous seven weeks, has been seen as an try by authorities to ship a message that members of the elite are now not above the regulation.
Surveillance footage performed throughout the trial confirmed Bishimbayev repeatedly punching and kicking his spouse, 31-year-old Saltanat Nukenova, and dragging her by her hair, close to bare, into the VIP room of a restaurant owned by his household within the nation’s largest metropolis, Almaty.
As she lay dying within the suite with no safety cameras lined in her blood, Bishimbayev phoned a fortune teller, who assured him his spouse could be superb. When an ambulance lastly arrived 12 hours later, Nukenova was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
Movies had been additionally discovered on Bishimbayev’s cell phone wherein he insulted and humiliated the visibly bruised and bloodied Nukenova within the hours earlier than she misplaced consciousness on the morning of November 9 final yr.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has mentioned he desires to construct a fairer society together with improved rights for ladies.
The case has helped rally public help behind a regulation criminalising home violence, which parliament handed final month.
Days after Nukenova’s dying, her kin launched an internet petition urging authorities to move “Saltanat’s Legislation” to bolster safety for these prone to home violence. When the trial started, greater than 5,000 Kazakhs wrote to senators urging for harder legal guidelines on abuse, based on native media studies.
Authorities information present that one in six girls within the Central Asian nation has skilled violence by a male associate.
In keeping with the United Nations, about 400 girls die from home abuse within the nation every year. These figures might be increased as many instances go unreported.
Throughout the trial, Bishimbayev admitted to beating his spouse, however mentioned a few of her accidents had been self-inflicted. He denied torturing or planning to homicide her.
He served because the oil-rich nation’s financial system minister from Might to December 2016.
Bishimbayev was convicted of bribery in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in jail, however walked free after lower than three years because of an amnesty and parole.
